Crowds gathered at Auckland's Aotea Square to protest the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza have been urged to shut down the Israeli embassy in New Zealand.

Hamas has ruled out a ceasefire deal unless Israel "lifts the siege" on Gaza, the organisation's political chief has said.

Investor sentiment was hit across the globe by rising geopolitical tension following the downing of a Malaysian airliner and the start of an Israeli offensive into Gaza.

Israel has resumed its air campaign against Gaza after Hamas rejected a six-hour truce and fired dozens of rockets over the border.

Social media has become one of the weapons of war. The Israeli army, which has been on Twitter since 2009, now has 286,000 followers.

Washington has warned Israel against any ground invasion of Gaza, as the UN says more than 40 of the 176 dead were children.

The residents of the Mobarat Felestin centre for the disabled had just finished suhoor, the early morning meal before a long day of fasting during Ramadan, when the first missile hit the roof.

Israeli-Palestinian relations in new crisis with violent clashes following the discovery of body of a Palestinian teenager apparently abducted in revenge attack.

Ramping up a campaign to paint the Palestinians as the rejectionists in the troubled United States-brokered Middle-East peace efforts.

A new finding about the domestication of camels in Israel casts doubt on the historical accuracy of some Bible stories.

Scarlett Johansson hit back at critics in a new version of the controversial SodaStream commercial in last night's Super Bowl.

In a YouTube video with nearly 5 million views, Scarlett Johansson leans seductively into the camera and purrs: "My real job is saving the world."

Scarlett Johansson has chosen to end her collaboration with Oxfam in favour of honouring her contract with SodaStream: an Israeli company that operates in the West Bank.

Israel's former prime minister Ariel Sharon died Saturday, eight years after a debilitating stroke put him into a coma.

An Israeli soldier was killed by a Lebanese army sniper as he drove along the border, the Israeli military said, drawing Israeli threats of retaliation.

Swiss scientists have concluded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is likely to have died from polonium poisoning.

A tweet that appeared to suggest Israel had attacked Syria sent US oil prices soaring - until traders realised the post referred to the 40th anniversary of a war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played the spoiler to Iran's attempts to ease relations with the West, calling the Iranian leader "a wolf in sheep's clothing".

Despite soothing assurances from Iran's new leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored US President Barack Obama to keep punishing sanctions in place against Tehran.

Israel wants to remain in control of 40 per cent of the West Bank and leave dozens of settlements intact as part of a peace deal that will create a Palestinian state with only temporary borders, according to Palestinian sources.

They scamper in front of you as you walk along the footpath. They skulk in the dark in the evenings. They sun themselves on top of the rubbish bins.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully will travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories today for bilateral meetings and discussions on the Middle East Peace Process.

Visit Israel and you swiftly adjust to the solemnity with which its people honours its history, as Kevin Pilley found.

A fly with a water droplet balanced on its head features in an incredible up-close-and-personal series of pictures of bugs in amazingly sharp detail.